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Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99View PC Gaming Show Summer Game Fest TES4: Oblivion Elden Ring: Nightreign Recommended reading I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999 Publisher who resurrected lost pirate game Captain Blood says it's 'a 3 or 4' by today's standards, but that's half the fun: 'All its charms, all its flaws, all the vibes are from that era' I found a mysterious demo disc with no name hiding a game almost no one in the world has ever seen, and it made me feel like I'd uncovered buried treasure The secret stand-out of Sony's State of Play was the bizarre resurrection of Deus Ex's PS2 version Doom: The Dark Ages' melee-heavy, parry-focused gameplay was nothing like I expected, and now I'm more eager to play the full thing than ever Fallout-themed Doom mod Vault 666 has multiple endings, an OP Dogmeat companion, and a Ron Perlman-impersonating narrator so good, I was worried it was AI-generated at first The Game Informer archive just got upgraded with its entire backlog, so go experience the eye-melting world of '90s game advertising A long-lost Duke Nukem prototype resurfaces after 24 years Dominic Tarason 6 June 2025 Long considered lost media, Duke Nukem: D-Day is rediscovered a quarter-century late. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: n-Space) It's strange to think that once upon a time, Duke Nukem—Johnny Bravo's sleazier cousin and poster child for videogame violence—was a cornerstone of gaming culture. No matter how inappropriate, he could be found on any and all platforms, from the original monochrome Game Boy to N64 and beyond. Time-travel misadventure Duke Nukem: D-Day (alternatively 'Man of Valor') was going to be the big man's first outing on PlayStation 2, developed by now-defunct studio n-Space, makers of two PS1 games in the series. Despite being reportedly close to finished, the game got canned and never saw the light of day. Until now, as a 2001 prototype build featuring 12 playable levels leaked onto the Internet Archive today. (Image credit: n-Space) The kind soul that uploaded this prototype says that an unserious person might consider this version "90% complete". And they'd be right, in that there's technically a lot of game here, but it's obviously unfinished. What we've got here is still an interesting bit of history, both thematically and in the art preservation sense. Related articles I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999 Publisher who resurrected lost pirate game Captain Blood says it's 'a 3 or 4' by today's standards, but that's half the fun: 'All its charms, all its flaws, all the vibes are from that era' I found a mysterious demo disc with no name hiding a game almost no one in the world has ever seen, and it made me feel like I'd uncovered buried treasure While there's no cutscenes or voicework in this version, it seems to contain all the key action beats, albeit in somewhat skeletal form. Duke starts out in a contemporary strip club (of course) before going back in time to battle the Third Reich and their alien allies on the beaches of Normandy, eventually culminating in storming the alien mothership in the Antarctic. Not quite as fanciful as the earlier Duke Nukem: Time To Kill (which saw Duke hopping all over time and space), but shooting Nazis never gets old. (Image credit: n-Space) The controls feel like a hangover from the PS1 pre-dual-analogue era, with the left stick turning and running, shoulder buttons strafing and face buttons letting you shoot, jump and do a Max Payne-esque sideways dive to evade fire from an assortment of Nazi troopers and their reptilian alien pals. Weapon drops are few and far between in this prototype too, although Duke's infinite-ammo golden Desert Eagle seems to solve most problems, and fires as fast as you can mash the button. While much of the meat of the game seems to be in place, it's raw and lacking in connective tissue. In short, in this state, this isn't a game to be played casually, but it's great to see something previously thought lost made accessible. You'll obviously need either a PS2 capable of running third-party software (mine is sadly in a dusty storage box somewhere) or an emulator like PCSX2 to play this prototype. I couldn't quite find the optimal emulator settings to make it play nice, so many textures (including skyboxes) were a glitchy mess, but it was playable enough. This being an early prototype, n-Space kindly left a bunch of debug tools accessible, including the option to hop straight to any of the levels, so you can get a good look at what they were cooking without too much effort. The uploader also mentions that the game was in development all the way until 2003, meaning that there could, somewhere, be a much more finished and polished version of D-Day just waiting to be unearthed. Fingers crossed that it doesn't take another 24 years to dig that version up, too. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Borderlands 4: What we know so far Borderlands 3 Shift codes: Golden key connection Tiny Tina's Shift codes: Free skeleton keys Best FPS games: Finest gaming gunplay Dominic Tarason Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer The product of a wasted youth, wasted prime and getting into wasted middle age, Dominic Tarason is a freelance writer, occasional indie PR guy and professional techno-hermit seen in many strange corners of the internet and seldom in reality. Based deep in the Welsh hinterlands where no food delivery dares to go, videogames provide a gritty, realistic escape from the idyllic views and fresh country air. If you're looking for something new and potentially very weird to play, feel free to poke him on Bluesky. He's almost sociable, most of the time. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999 Publisher who resurrected lost pirate game Captain Blood says it's 'a 3 or 4' by today's standards, but that's half the fun: 'All its charms, all its flaws, all the vibes are from that era' I found a mysterious demo disc with no name hiding a game almost no one in the world has ever seen, and it made me feel like I'd uncovered buried treasure The secret stand-out of Sony's State of Play was the bizarre resurrection of Deus Ex's PS2 version Doom: The Dark Ages' melee-heavy, parry-focused gameplay was nothing like I expected, and now I'm more eager to play the full thing than ever Fallout-themed Doom mod Vault 666 has multiple endings, an OP Dogmeat companion, and a Ron Perlman-impersonating narrator so good, I was worried it was AI-generated at first Latest in Action Surf on a magic sword and kickflip over flying dolphins in Sword of the Sea, hitting Steam in August Bloodstained is back after 6 years with 3D cutscenes that look like they're from a different era of videogames Our first look at 007 First Light is finally here, and oh no: I'm pretty sure this Bond was born in the year 2000 Suda51 just announced a delightfully bizarre action game about a cyborg man with a chainsaw sword Almost exactly 5 years after it was announced, Capcom's astronaut action game Pragmata finally has a release date: 'It's real' Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater: All the key details on the remake of a PS2 classic Latest in News This camo-wrapped RTX 5060 has a real nostalgic flair, but I prefer the screen-integrated prototype GPU MSI showed me at Computex 2025 Borderlands 2 is free to keep on Steam and it's getting review-bombed at the same time because of, uh, the EULA? 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